Amazing Spider-Man #23Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #23 Review/plot: Green Goblin tries to take over Lucky Lobo's mob. The Goblin arranges for Lucky to be arrested but faces a setback because the entire gang gets arrested along with their boss. Fredrick "Big Man" Foswell is out of jail and JJ hires him back as a reporter. Betty and Pete have a misunderstanding over a letter from Ned Leeds. Peter sees the letter but wonders why Betty won't tell him about it. After all, he knows Ned too! But it turns out that Betty just forgot to tell him. During his fight with the Lobo gang, Spidey has to call Aunt May to let her know she'll be late so that he doesn't get in trouble like he did last issue. Spidey and Green Goblin have a big fight but it ends inconclusively. It turns out the Goblin was too successful at framing the Lucky Lobo's gang, and the entire gang gets arrested, leaving him with no one to lead. It was Foswell who tipped the police, and Peter wonders if he was in cahoots with the Goblin. Amazing Spider-Man is a better comic that the others being published at this time because so many subplots are cooking at one time. It makes the comic feel more substantial and also seems more realistic as Spidey has to juggle so many different things going on in his life. Here is the scene Ronaldo mentions below: Quality Rating: B- Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A References: N/A Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: Marvel Tales #161 Inbound References (3): showCharacters Appearing: Aunt May, Betty Brant, Big Man (Frederick Foswell), Green Goblin (Norman Osborn), J. Jonah Jameson, Lucky Lobo, Spider-Man 1965 / Box 2 / Silver Age CommentsJim Shooter has a letter in this issue. Posted by: Mark Drummond | January 12, 2013 7:27 PM Jim Shooter has a letter here. Posted by: Mark Drummond | June 24, 2013 6:20 PM Hello fnord! Here is your friend from Brazil! Posted by: Ronaldo Merhaj | July 2, 2013 11:52 PM Thanks, Ronaldo! I've added the scan. Posted by: fnord12 | July 3, 2013 7:54 AM He also has a cameo appearance in #25. Peter thinks something like, "I wonder who that is talking to JJ? Must be someone important." Posted by: Time Traveling Bunny | July 3, 2013 8:25 AM Thanks, TTB. Added him there too. Posted by: fnord12 | July 3, 2013 8:55 AM Just wanted to point out that the "osborn hairstyle" was pretty common for Ditko, for example the sandman, this guy In other words, not unique at all in the Ditko world. Posted by: Kveto from Prague | July 3, 2013 1:33 PM I did check with the Marvel Index on these and Olshevsky does call out both the civilian appearance of Osborn in #23 and confirms it's him in #25 as well. Besides, one of your two examples there is the Sandman, and we all know John Byrne revealed they were related. ;-) Posted by: fnord12 | July 3, 2013 1:48 PM I think there is enough context to assume that this is Norman. He appears here, in ASM 25 and in ASM 26 (or 27? I forget which one) as a friend and fellow club member to JJJ. Posted by: Time Traveling Bunny | July 3, 2013 1:49 PM I'm happy enough to go along with it, but I suspect it might have originally been apocryphal. Posted by: Kveto from Prague | July 3, 2013 2:09 PM Ditko sez: "Now digest this: I knew from Day One, from the first GG story, who the GG would be. I absolutely knew because I planted him in J. Jonah Jameson's businessmans club, it was where JJJ and the GG could be seen together. I planted them together in other stories where the GG would not appear in costume, action." "I wanted JJJ's and the GG's lives to mix for later story drama involving more than just the two characters" "I planted the GG's son (same distinctive hair style) in the college issues for more dramatic involvement and storyline consequences" "So how could there be any doubt, dispute, about who the GG had to turn out to be when unmasked?" Posted by: S | July 10, 2013 1:13 AM This is two years later, but S, where do those Ditko quotes come from? Posted by: Chris | May 15, 2015 2:18 AM Those quotes are from Steve Ditko's 2 page essay ("The Ever Unwilling") in THE COMICS Vol. 20, No. 3 [March 2009], the newsletter of Robin Snyder. Posted by: Chris | February 13, 2016 9:04 PM Yes, I answered my own question! Posted by: Chris | February 13, 2016 9:05 PM Peter stopping to call Aunt May during the fight with the gangsters is classic. Love that. Posted by: Robert | February 15, 2016 9:41 AM don't think they ever explain how the Goblin can catch and manipulate spidey's webs like that. You'd think he'd use that trick more often. Posted by: kveto | February 21, 2016 5:14 AM More classic Green Goblin here but it seems more set up for what was to come than anything else. Posted by: Bobby Sisemore | October 31, 2016 9:43 PM This seems to be where the standard Goblin arsenal is solidified, and it builds nicely on the Goblin making his rep by "defeating" Spider-Man back in issue #17. It seems clear Ditko had a long-term direction in mind for the character stating with that appearance, and this tory is a nice bridge between the Goblin's first two appearances and his "big" stories in issues #26-7 and #37-8 where he's trying to run the mob and fights rivals rather than targeting Spider-Man. Also, not only does Jim Shooter have a letter here, he basically spends the whole thing telling Stan and Steve how to plot the book. Posted by: Omar Karindu | June 10, 2017 2:24 PM Definitely love Peter remembering to call his Aunt. Just the way the door looks. It's not bending like cartoony characters are trying to break in, bullets aren't shooting through, but there's a very powerful sense that the bad guys are trying to take the door down and get to Spidey, but he's just having a natural relaxed conversation with his aunt. Wouldn't want the poor dear to worry about him. Very underrated scene in Ditko's "Spider-Man." Posted by: ChrisW | June 11, 2017 12:14 AM Comments are now closed. |
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